


Scraped Knees and Cotton Ball Wars

by asexualjuliet



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Mike Wheeler isn’t a goddamn idiot in this one, i wrote this in half an hour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 10:22:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20928653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asexualjuliet/pseuds/asexualjuliet
Summary: Max Mayfield does not cry.She yells and screams and glares and shouts, but she does not cry.Her eyes stay dry at Billy’s funeral, at Hopper’s. She doesn’t cry when she watches Will and El leave Hawkins forever.So why the hell is she crying now?Or, the one where Mike and Max talk





	Scraped Knees and Cotton Ball Wars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [broadway_hufflepuff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/broadway_hufflepuff/gifts).

> This one’s for broadway_hufflepuff, who texted me four hours ago asking me to “write one about mike and max becoming friends please.”
> 
> I’ve never written a Max-centric fic before. She’s one of my favorites and I hope I did her justice!

Max Mayfield does not cry. 

She yells and screams and glares and shouts, but she does not cry. 

Her eyes stay dry at Billy’s funeral, at Hopper’s. She doesn’t cry when she watches Will and El leave Hawkins forever. 

So why the hell is she crying now?

It’s the stress of everything, it’s the screams that echo around the whole house, it’s the simple lack of Billy and El that chases Max out the front door and onto her skateboard. 

She skates like she’ll die if she stops, skates as fast as she’s ever skated before, down the street, left on Mirkwood, tears blurring her vision. 

_ Faster. Faster. Faster. _

“Max?” a voice calls, and she jerks her head to the side and falls. 

“_Shit!_” she yells as the pavement hits her knees. 

Max looks down at her legs. The new jeans El had picked out for her at the mall have two new rips in the knees, and it’s then that she loses it. 

She cries so hard she can barely breathe, sobs so loud that she barely even notices the footsteps coming up beside her. 

“Max?” the voice at her side asks again, soft and gentle this time. 

She looks up. 

It’s Mike Wheeler, with his stupid hair and his stupid short-shorts. She’s about to say something bitchy that he probably doesn’t even deserve before a sob tears through her chest and she buries her face in her hands. 

“Hey, you’re okay,” he murmurs. “Shit, c’mere.”

And then he’s hugging her, and it’s awkward but it’s also nice, and he rubs her back hesitantly as she sobs into his shoulder. 

“I’m _ sorry_,” she sobs, “I’m sorry you _ hate me _ and I’m sorry Billy made everyone’s life _ hell _ and maybe it’s better that he’s dead but he _ could have been good_. He was only eighteen, Mike, and he could have been _ better_, Mike, but now he can’t!”

“I know,” he says softly, and Max just cries harder. 

The sobs subside after a minute or two, and Mike pulls away. Max rubs her itchy eyes and tries not to meet Mike’s gaze. 

“Are you okay?” he asks, and there’s something in his eyes she’s never seen before, but she can tell he’s being genuine. 

“I don’t know,” she admits after a second. 

“Oh, shit, you’re bleeding,” Mike says, suddenly becoming aware of the bloodstained fabric around her knees. 

Max almost laughs. “No shit, Sherlock.”

“Come on, I’ll fix you up,” Mike says, getting up and offering a hand. 

Max looks at him for a second and takes it. 

-

Eight months ago, if you’d have told Max she’d be sitting on the floor of Mike Wheeler’s bathroom as he helped bandage up her knees, she’d think you’d have lost your goddamn mind. 

Then again, monsters are real and her best friend can move things with her _ mind_, so anything’s possible. 

“So what’s going on?” he asks her hesitantly, after her first knee is patched up. She goes to work on her hip and he takes the other knee, wiping it gently with a wet towel. 

“Just lost it, I guess,” she shrugs, and he looks up at her. “Like, my stepbrother’s _ dead _ and my best friend’s _ gone_, so this summer’s shaping up to be pretty shitty.”

Mike nods. “That sucks,” he says, and then adds, “I miss her too.”

“No fucking kidding, Lover Boy,” Max laughs. 

Mike flips her off and puts the cleaning solution to her knee. Max gasps in pain. 

“Son of a _ bitch_, Wheeler, you’re supposed to fucking _ warn _ me before you do that!”

But she’s smiling, and he’s smiling too, and even when she starts throwing cotton balls at him, he keeps grinning and throws them back, and when Nancy passes by the open bathroom door mid-cotton ball war and says “What the fuck, Mike,” they both just laugh. 

Max figures there’s a mutual agreement somewhere in this mess that says that Mike Wheeler can probably be considered her friend, and if she’s being honest? That’s pretty damn cool. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> All mistakes are my own, please let me know if you see any!
> 
> Kudos/Comments are greatly appreciated!


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